MX300 & A3D 2.0 critical review (long)
Martin R. Huttenloher
300 with A3D 2.0. I bought this card for Half-Life (who didn't :) and I must
admit that this is one of the best hardware purchases I ever made with
probably the best value for the money.
Still there are some annoying problems, but nothing that can't be fixed with
the proper driver updates and game patches... read below.
David Gasior from Aureal: If you read this feedback, please redirect it to
the responsible persons at Sierra/Valve and Aureal (you know them and their
emails better than I do :). Your statement would also be welcome (btw, it's
great to have you in this newsgroup).
The card is well manufactured with robust, gold-plated jacks. Everything
about the card seems solid and well layed-out (CD, AUX, modem inputs).
Diamond's control panel applet is well-programmed, well-structured,
functional, everything serves its purpose, it's very intuitive. I just love
the applet :). 4 CDs are included, one of which is a DVD, 2 games, and
additional software. Nice-rounded package for the asking price.
Most importantly the sound of the card is fantastic! Clear sound quality
with no audible hiss (at bearable listening levels, which in my case is
loud). I guess the digital mixing pays off. My last sound card was a Sound
Blaster AWE32... and I waited for almost 4 years until a really better card
would justify the purchase of a new soundcard. I figured the time has come,
and the MX300 was a wise choice for me.
A wonderful thing that I missed with all the newer soundcards is the feature
of a headphone jack (amplified). Now, if you don't use a 4 speaker setup,
you can use Out1 as the line-out for your Hifi-Amplifier (or active
speakers) and Out2 for a headset for internet phone (which other soundcard
manufacturers simply seem to ignore). Great! This is what I always wanted.
The applet covers all these different setup possibilities in a very easy way
to configure.
DOS native support of older games is also possible and worked (which was an
important feature I seeked), with a few glitches, that I will address later.
Now let me cover the more important part for which Aureal is responsible:
The Vortex2 chip with A3D 2.0:
Now this just blew me away... I don't remember having had so much fun with a
new ground-breaking technology for the future of gaming since my first
heart-to-heart with a Voodoo1 two years ago. And if I am honest, even that
experience was not as intensive as experiencing positional 3D audio for the
first time with this soundcard. Sound is SO important for an immersive
experience, I totally underestimated it. Now I must agree with George Lucas'
comment that sound in movies make up for 50% of the whole experience. With
"interactive movies" (games like half-life) it must be even more.
A3D 2.0 is simply put a revelation, a most impressive experience! I spent
hours with the sound demos that were supplied with the MX300, one of which
was a walkthrough 3D demo room (similar to the voodoo1 wizard's tower demo),
with focus not on the graphical rendering but the 3D sound rendering. I
spent hours with these demos... and I had a huge smile on my face, like a
little kid playing with his first truly wonderful, enchanting toy... :)
Oh, btw, I did all the testing with headphones of course (Sennheiser
HD-580), which is (after reading lots of white papers about HRTF technology)
the preferred method, since with a speaker setup you have to deal with a lot
artifacts like cross-over, reflections etc. If the left and right sound can
have a direct path to your ears, it is supposedly the best setup for 3D
audio. The Vortex2 applies cross-over cancellation for speaker setups
though, but I haven't tested the effect (besides, I play real loud, and
headphones are the only viable option for not immersing the neighbours, too
:).
But it wasn't until I downloaded the newest A3D 2.0 technical demo from
Aureals website (wavetracing demo) that I could appreciate the huge
potential of the new wavetracing technology that Aureal introduced with 2.0.
The capability of adding reflections to 3D positional cues is really the
icing and makes the environment sound real. Without reflections (A3D 1.0),
sounds seemed closer around your head and sounded "sterile"... with 2.0
reflections the environment came to life and sounds had the proper distance
cue. The difference is awesome. Now if games could only properly use this
new technology...
THE DOWNSIDES: (i will start with the 3 most annoying ones first)
I bought the MX300 for Half-Life. I bought it especially for the ability of
occlusions (which was already a feature with the older A3D 1.0, i.e. MX200
predecessor). Occlusions adds the ability that sounds get muffled and less
discernable when they don't have a direct path to the listener (disappear
around corners, or are behind walls). Now, since the beginning of 3D games
(Dungeon Master in 1987) I always cursed at the idiotic way that the player
can hear monsters and sounds behind closed doors, walls etc... it was SO
unrealistic. I hated it when I was standing in a room and I heard a monster
right to my left and there was none (but in another room in the stupid map
behind a thick stone wall). This is worse than having no sound at all!
I realized that it was almost impossible in all the years with the little
processing power for the programmers to code a true 3D-audio-environment
with wavetracing etc. So, I was really looking forward to the occlusions
feature of A3D in Half-Life. They failed.
In some instances you can see it working, but not consistently. In over 90%
of the game you hear sounds through walls from nearby rooms in the map;
sounds won't get muffled if they disappear around the corner... all in all,
it sucks big time! And it's not even an A3D 2.0 feature! It's a basic
feature that A3D 1.0 cards were able to do for over a year now. And for me,
occlusions really make the difference between a real environment where I
have to survive by listening to the environment carefully and react in
split-seconds, and an environment which throws all the plethora of sounds in
that map at me and distracts my attention and dampens my experience like
with the games 10 years ago. I hate it!
In multiplayer I was expecting a real benefit from occlusions, especially
considering the footsteps and weapons noises... NO, of course NOT! Like
before, footsteps were EVERYWHERE sounding as close as if somebody was right
walking around me and ready to shoot me to pieces. Of course, nobody was
around in that room where I was standing, but in other rooms far away, below
me or elsewhere... and OF COURSE battle sounds were everywhere around me as
if the walls weren't there to shield them off. This is total failure of the
programmers, HOW COULD THEY OVERSEE THAT!? I am so disappointed... :(
So (as usual), I had to rely on me looking in all directions for possible
enemies VISUALLY, because I couldn't rely on the audio portion of the game,
for which I bought the MX300 in the first place. Bummer. I can only say: Fix
this Sierra guys, and fix this quickly! And to the Aureal guys: teach them
how to do 3D audio right, because Half-Life is THE test-platform for your
new hardware, and you wouldn't want to make a bad first impression in this
highly volatile new market.
Next: Reflections in HL seemed to be implemented, but the whole experience
of it was rather subdued compared to the potential realism I discovered in
the Aureal wavetracing demo. Also, weapon sounds seemed low and muffled (as
other people have already noticed). It seems that the Sierra/Valve team has
already done a great job on the reverb effects in software (without 3D audio
hardware), so the added (subdued) reflections of A3D 2.0 didn't quite live
up to what I know is possible from the demos. Then I experienced some added
popping sounds, especially with the one when the player walks on metal grate
floors (as others also noticed)... these high-pitched pops can get VERY
annoying after a while and hurt my ears. Oh well, little things that I am
sure will be fixed in a future Half-Life patch.
Still, occlusions could have made the big difference.. and they simply blew
it. I just can't get over this, as you might have realized by now... :/
Next: I also bought the MX300 to lessen the processing burden of mixing
sounds and computing reverbs through my CPU, and gaining a higher framerate
by using 3D audio hardware for it. Now, what did I get? The exact opposite!
:( I did some intensive measurements with the reference blowout timedemo
and different setups. My driver versions and configs, as well as the results
of my tests are added at the end of this posting for those who want facts.
In short: With my old AWE32 I was using up roughly 5% of my CPU power for
the mixing of a dozend sounds and even computing reverb for each individual
room in Half-Life... all in software. I am still surprised that it is that
low, I expected my old Soundblaster to be much more demanding on the CPU,
especially with reverb. Well, now with the MX300, it uses up roughly 20% of
CPU power!
Funny, isn't it? I went from an expected 20fps (as I expected a few more
frames after going through hardware) at one specific setting to 14.6fps.
Wonderful. This is a great disappointment. If somebody could explain that to
me I would be most grateful, since I read in net-reviews that with the
current drivers the MX300 should "only" use 6% of CPU processing time (which
is still a lot, but they want to improve it). But almost 20% compared to a
'no sound'-setting is way too much. Actually I was hoping an increase in fps
by buying the MX300... what gives? Is Half-Life using more than the 16
3D-channels that the MX300 with the current drivers can do in hardware? I
don't think so, it wouldn't make sense...
Next: Now let me mention some minor things that I am sure will be fixed
soon. The DOS driver that the installer put in autoexec.bat crashed my
system when it started to boot windows. Gave me some headaches which could
have been avoided by better field testing of the driver, especially since so
many people use Norton Anti-Virus. Changing the sequence in which the MX300
DOS driver and NAV were started in the autoexec.bat resolved the problem.
Next: Wavetable under DOS. I am using a Roland wavetable (the MX300's
wavetable is one of the best throw-in WTs on a soundcard, but still it sucks
compared to a Roland SCD-15) and I am using it on a dedicated MPU-401
MIDI-card in an ISA slot, which yields better audio for playing MIDI through
the RCA stereo jacks on that MIDI card. Now, for games, I have a
loop-through cable to the LINE-IN of the soundcard, so that I can hear MIDI
music with games through my soundcard. Problem: With the MX300 DOS driver
the LINE-IN seems muted. Too bad. I don't know if there is a way to set the
levels in DOS, I haven't found a DOS mixer. What I would have expected is
that the DOS driver uses the same mixer settings as the mixer in Windows.
They should fix that too.
Next: It would have been nice if they coded a DOS emulation for the SB16,
not the SB Pro. Maybe the PRO emulation is easier, but it also sounds less
"punchy" and crystal clear than my original AWE32/SB16. I don't know what
the mixing frequencies are for the PRO emulation but there is more noise and
hiss in it. I would really appreciate a DOS driver that provides the same
audio quality on my superior MX300 as with my old SB16.
Next: The A3D 2.0 Room Demo supplied with the MX300 is a great showcase. But
although it states 2.0, it rarely uses the wavetracing/reflections features
of 2.0. I only noticed reflections between the long blue walls in the
courtyard beside the water fountain. When the drone passed through both
walls and you were standing between them, the wavetracing kicked in; also
the fountain noise was reflected by these walls. BUT in all other rooms they
didn't apply A3D 2.0, what a waste of its potential! Isn't one of the
reasons of wavetracing to make occlusions sound more realistic? Example: The
first room with the music and the 4 speakers. If you stand outside and the
speakers are covered by the walls you should still hear the music louder
(and not only muffled by occlusion) by the reflections going through the
open entrance. But as soon as you move to either direction while standing
right at the entrance and make the box disappear behind a wall: muffled low
sound. If they had used A3D 2.0 for the whole demo you would hear the music
reflected by the walls and still being loud enough although the box was not
visible (occlusion). The experience would be much more realistic. Same goes
for the helicopter drone in the other room. When it disappears around the
corner one should still hear the helicopter reflected by the side-walls and
not just muffled as if it disappeared behind a huge canyon in an outdoor
area... :) Yes, I am picky, but this is what A3D 2.0 is all about, and the
demo (though labeled A3D 2.0) fails to deliver. I guess they rushed it.
David, please make them provide an updated/fixed version of this Demo Room,
because it is a great showcase piece.
Next: The MX300's Equalizer works great and I use it. But if you activate it
for CD-Audio (Mixer -> Advanced controls for CD-ROM -> Enable Equalizer), it
attenuates the sound by a few decibels, so I rather leave it off, otherwise
the cd-audio volume would be too low. But now I don't have a way to control
tonal balance for the cd-rom anymore, since the monster driver deactivates
the standard treble and bass controls of the mixer. And since the EQ is much
more powerful and sounds great I would like to use it for CD-Audio, too.
Something to be fixed.
Next: Under Windows the EQ does not work for the LINE-IN audio. As I
explained above this is where my MIDI is imputed and I also want MIDI music
equalized! They should make and 'advanced' button in the mixer for the EQ
also under LINE-IN and AUXILIARY, and EXTERNAL MIDI (I guess if I plugged my
Roland daughterboard on the MX300's external connector it wouldn't be EQ
either, as I see no advanced button for it).
Next: Two minor things that bugged me: The manual (either paper or online
help) isn't very helpful at explaining the technology of positional audio at
all. Actually they don't explain anything about it, like how the speakers
should be set up for the best 3D effect and where the sweet spot is etc. I
looked everywhere for it but couldn't find a word about it. Luckily I don't
care much, since I am using headphones, and you can only put them on your
ears in one way :). But in a speaker setup a lot can be done wrong and this
should have been addressed in the manual. Oh well.
Finally, I didn't like the way the installer "bent" all my file associations
for .wav, .mov, .avi, .mid etc. files to the supplied MediaWorks player. I
don't like the player (it is way too bulky and takes too long to load before
i can finally play a multimedia file) and now I have to undo all the file
associations back to my preferred slim and fast MediaPlayer from Windows.
Bummer. At least the installer could have ASKED the user if he wants that
done or not. Oh well.
So, this sums up my review of the MX300. It turned out to be longer than I
thought, but I hope it serves some purpose. Don't get me wrong: The MX300 is
the best choice at the moment, and an impressive card from Diamond, the
applet is great. The Vortex2 chip from Aureal rules... but so far only in
one demo (wavetracing demo). The supplied Demo Room demo needs fixing, as
well as Half-Life (please, please, fix it fast!).
Maybe the Aureal team should have done a better job at helping and
instructing the game developers to perfectly implement A3D 2.0 into their
titles. Especially, since it's a new technology, and the poor game
developers have so many other aspects to take care of in game development
before releasing a game under the pressure of deadlines. If Aureal wants to
see the technology fly, they should work closely together with the content
providers (as 3DFX did for their Voodoo chip) and beta-test their hailed
features like wavetracing and occlusions in the games that are supposed to
support them. David?
But I am optimistic, and since this is all a new technology and rushed for
the holiday season, I give it a grace period. After all, the hardware seems
to be perfectly finished and not rushed at all. It's all about software, and
that can be fixed. So, I truly can recommend the Diamond Monster Sound
MX300. I don't regret its purchase. It's one of the best hardware upgrades I
did in the last 4 years. Now, we only have to put enough pressure on the
driver coders and game coders to fix some major and minor flaws and we will
have a truly wonderful experience with this powerful Vortex2 chip.
On a side note: The HRTFs used in the Vortex2 chip are a fits-all
psycho-accoustic solution. The algorithms were chosen in a way that it
provides the best 3d positional audio experience for a broad range of
listeners. Therefore it is not "perfect", i.e. matched exactly to the way
YOU might hear your environment. Since every person perceives his accoustic
environment differently (different outer ears, head-size etc.) the best way
of course to experience 3D audio the way YOU would hear it in real life is
to create your own personalized HRTFs through an individual measurement of
your ears. The NASA, the military etc. are using this to give each
individual the best possible 3D listening setup. Also, some high-high-end
headphone manufacturers offer these services for virtual surround sound
simulations. Such measurements are costly and intensive. I have seen
headphone manufacturers offering a personalized HRTF-set on a memory-card
for one of their systems for an additional USD 400.
Now, I am a dreamer, but I know for sure that this is the way to go and it
is the way it will be done in a couple of years when 3D audio becomes more
popular (like surround in the 90s). Then we would have 3D audio soundcards
(or headphone amplifiers) with a Flash-ROM in which you could download your
own personalized HRTF set, which will give you the ultimately realistic
experience of true 3D sound as your brain learned to process it from birth
on. Prices will drop for these measurments eventually and more and more
service labs would provide them covering more cities worldwide. Maybe for
USD 50 or something... :) It would be worth it. I can already see it
happen.
As for now, the averaged HRTFs in the MX300 are the best solution, since
personalized HRTFs are not feasible at the moment (and we won't see them for
years). After all I was blown away by them, and I am usually not easily
satisfied, i.e. "picky".
A3D 2.0 rocks. With the MX300's pricing and software it's a no-brainer.
Period.
Go for it,
Martin Huttenloher
My setup, config, drivers and measurements (Half-Life timedemo):
Asus P2L97, P2-266, 64MB, Matrox G200, W95 OSR2.1
latest Matrox G200 drivers: 4.50b3, bios: 1.6
MX300 with out-of-the-box software + latest A3D drivers 2.04
Half-Life: patched version with latest 1006 patch (w/new a3dapi.dll in root
folder)
measurements: (fps, timedemo blowout, several runs in each mode)
without sound: ('-nosound' parameter)
@640x480: 17.6
@800x600: 17.2
with my old AWE32:
@640x480: 16.8
@800x600: 16.6
with MX300 A3D 2.0:
@640x480: 14.6
@800x600: 14.4
David Gasior
>David Gasior from Aureal: If you read this feedback, please redirect it to
>the responsible persons at Sierra/Valve and Aureal (you know them and their
>emails better than I do :). Your statement would also be welcome (btw, it's
>great to have you in this newsgroup).
Ack - so long! :)
>I realized that it was almost impossible in all the years with the little
>processing power for the programmers to code a true 3D-audio-environment
>with wavetracing etc. So, I was really looking forward to the occlusions
>feature of A3D in Half-Life. They failed.
Ack again!
>In some instances you can see it working, but not consistently. In over 90%
>of the game you hear sounds through walls from nearby rooms in the map;
>sounds won't get muffled if they disappear around the corner... all in all,
>it sucks big time!
Wow, this is not something I have noticed. Now, to be truthful, most of my
testing has been on Half-Life: Day One, and we have found some issues with
Half-Life retail that we have reported back to Valve. But I really have not
seen any problems with occlusions in the retail game. Are you referring to
retail or to "Day One"?
>Next: Reflections in HL seemed to be implemented, but the whole experience
>of it was rather subdued compared to the potential realism I discovered in
>the Aureal wavetracing demo.
We have released the console commands for Half Life so that you can go in and
tweak the values and crank the reflections if you like. The default settings
in place are what we as an audio team (Valve and us) decided was the most
realistic to us. The problem with reflections in my opinion is that it can
be overdone, and I have heard it way overdone. We want it to be as realistic
as possible. I sort of equate it to CGI in movies - we want it to be subtle
so you don't spend time thinking its there. Sure, at first you should notice
that it is more impressive and realistic than without, but then it should
just fade away in your mind because it sounds as you would expect it to.
>up to what I know is possible from the demos. Then I experienced some added
>popping sounds, especially with the one when the player walks on metal grate
>floors (as others also noticed)...
We had found this as well, but when we regressed it, we found that it occurs
even in DirectSound mode, as well as on other sound cards, including the SB
AWE64 and SB Live! We informed Valve of this as it does not seem limited to
us.
>Next: I also bought the MX300 to lessen the processing burden of mixing
>sounds and computing reverbs through my CPU, and gaining a higher framerate
>by using 3D audio hardware for it. Now, what did I get? The exact opposite!
>by buying the MX300... what gives? Is Half-Life using more than the 16
>3D-channels that the MX300 with the current drivers can do in hardware?
Two comments:
1) Half-Life can use more than 16 channels as I recall, though it does not
normally. I'm not absolutely positive about this, though.
2) While most of A3D is done on the Vortex 2 hardware, in regards to
reflections, some is done on the host: the geometry processing. We expect
this to take less CPU time than it is now. Already, the 2015 reference
drivers have made improvements over the 2011 drivers. We continue to
optimize the drivers. Our main goal was to create stable drivers, which I
certainly think we did. And of course, also able to pass Microsoft's WHQL
tests because we do have several major computer vendors that will be shipping
Vortex 2 chips in their systems.
>Next: Now let me mention some minor things that I am sure will be fixed
>soon. The DOS driver that the installer put in autoexec.bat crashed my
>system when it started to boot windows.
It should be installed as the last command in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, and we
have now tried to make all our OEMs aware of this for their installs.
>music with games through my soundcard. Problem: With the MX300 DOS driver
>the LINE-IN seems muted. Too bad. I don't know if there is a way to set the
>levels in DOS, I haven't found a DOS mixer.
I'll look into that.
>Next: It would have been nice if they coded a DOS emulation for the SB16,
>not the SB Pro.
Okay, let me address this one because this recently was just discussed. The
reason we chose SB Pro is because SB Pro is the standard for DOS games. Even
some SB16 chips from Creative had problems with some older DOS games that
supported SB and SB Pro only. Not all old DOS games support SB16, but pretty
much all support SB Pro. The mixer is also different between the SB Pro and
SB16. Supporting both the code for SB Pro and SB16 would not have been
feasible. Our main goal with DOS mode support is compatibility, and we have
(IMO) the best PCI SB compatiblity of any non-Creative card. And even then,
I think we're better than any of the cards based on the Ensoniq AudioPCI
chipsets (ES1370, ES1371) even the SB PCI 64/128.
There aren't that many DOS games that really sound better with a SB16 setting
than SB Pro. Most DOS games use 11kHz samples - either 8 bit or 16 bit. As
I recall, the SB Pro 2 can do 11kHz 16 bit but that's as high as 16 bit
support can go.
>David, please make them provide an updated/fixed version of this Demo Room,
>because it is a great showcase piece.
All of our demos are being updated.
>Next: The MX300's Equalizer works great and I use it. But if you activate it
>for CD-Audio (Mixer -> Advanced controls for CD-ROM -> Enable Equalizer), it
>attenuates the sound by a few decibels
The reason in the difference between the volume levels is because when the CD
EQ is turned off, the CD audio goes right to the CODEC and is processed
independent of our chip, basically just a pass through. If CD EQ is on, then
it goes through our chip and there is a change in volume.
>Next: Under Windows the EQ does not work for the LINE-IN audio. As I
>explained above this is where my MIDI is imputed and I also want MIDI music
>equalized! They should make and 'advanced' button in the mixer for the EQ
>also under LINE-IN and AUXILIARY, and EXTERNAL MIDI (I guess if I plugged my
>Roland daughterboard on the MX300's external connector it wouldn't be EQ
>either, as I see no advanced button for it).
You can launch the EQ app separately from the Diamond Control Panel. Can you
adjust this and have the changes affect LINE IN and AUX? To be honest, I
really have no idea as I have never tried that.
>applet is great. The Vortex2 chip from Aureal rules... but so far only in
>one demo (wavetracing demo). The supplied Demo Room demo needs fixing, as
>well as Half-Life (please, please, fix it fast!).
Actually, Heretic II with our A3D 2.0 patch is sounding simply fantastic and
will be another great demo of A3D 2.0 - hopefully Activision will be able to
QA it and release it soon. Heretic II is a completely different game with it
in. Also, Motorhead with the A3D 2.0 patch is really cool too.
>On a side note: The HRTFs used in the Vortex2 chip are a fits-all
>psycho-accoustic solution. The algorithms were chosen in a way that it
>provides the best 3d positional audio experience for a broad range of
>listeners. Therefore it is not "perfect", i.e. matched exactly to the way
>YOU might hear your environment.
>Now, I am a dreamer, but I know for sure that this is the way to go and it
>is the way it will be done in a couple of years when 3D audio becomes more
>popular (like surround in the 90s). Then we would have 3D audio soundcards
>(or headphone amplifiers) with a Flash-ROM in which you could download your
>own personalized HRTF set
Well, its actually something that I had suggested as well as a cool add-on.
The main obstacle is where do you go to get "fitted" for a custom HRTF? It's
not quite like getting a passport photo. :)
------------------------------------------------------------
David A Gasior h: dga...@home.com
Developer Relations, Aureal w: dga...@a3d.com
------------------------------------------------------------
Please note that this post reflects my own opinions, and not
necessarily those of my employer.
Scott Suzyn
David Gasior wrote in message ...
<good points and comments snipped>
>>Next: Reflections in HL seemed to be implemented, but the whole experience
>>of it was rather subdued compared to the potential realism I discovered in
>>the Aureal wavetracing demo.
After reading the original post I downloaded the wavetracing demo and when I
run it, it tells me I have a Vortex 1 and that I can't enable reflections. I
have an mx300 and have never owned a vortex 1 card.
<snip>
>>Then I experienced some added
>>popping sounds, especially with the one when the player walks on metal
grate
>>floors (as others also noticed)...
>
>We had found this as well, but when we regressed it, we found that it
occurs
>even in DirectSound mode, as well as on other sound cards, including the SB
>AWE64 and SB Live! We informed Valve of this as it does not seem limited
to
>us.
The Sblive does not have this problem.
<snip>
Just for the record I have experienced everything that Mr. Huttenloher has
with regards to Half Life and the Mx300. I am playing the retail version of
the game.
Scott
David Gasior
says ...
>After reading the original post I downloaded the wavetracing demo and when I
>run it, it tells me I have a Vortex 1 and that I can't enable reflections. I
>have an mx300 and have never owned a vortex 1 card.
That's a bug in the program - reflections should still work fine.
>The Sblive does not have this problem.
Then maybe it is system related, because we were able to duplicate it on the
SB Live! in our labs. Heard it myself.
Neptune
the MX300 I have been on the fence about buying one. I have an AWE64 and
want to join the 3D club and improve midi at the same time, but like you I
want to IMPROVE these criteria not go backwards.
I bought MX200 before and the MIDI was a major improvement, but the 3D audio
was poor, even with 4 speakers. The game out then to get working with 3D
audio was UNREAL, and sound kept hanging up on me, ie looping, even after
moving to different area in the game. After hack ing away at it I decided
to return the card in hopes that the MX300 would be my HOLY GRAIL!
Disappointment is the only word that comes to mind. I believe your review
is VERY objective, and I have seen similar posts. What baffles me is the
accolades thrown around by the gaming/hardware web sites. Whether Lyold
Case at Gamesport/CGW, or Sharky at S Extreme, or Thresh at his site,
everyone raves about it with little criticism. They simple conclude that it
does 3D audio in games better than Live. This isn't good enough. I have to
know that it works and works well to buy one.
It still sit here wondering if the Live would not be a better choice for
MIDI and 3D gaming in a software update to EAX2.0? I can get a LIVE at
Buycomp for $143 and would get the digital stuff to boot. So can the Live
be software update to EAX2.0? Will that be a more compelling experience
than the half implemented A3D2.0 that you describe for Half Life?
These are the questions......................
The only answer at this point seems to be, buy both test the crap outta
them, then if I chose the MX300 for 3D over the LIVE, buy a Midi daughter
card for another $80, then buy the digital I/O for another ?? So you see my
dilema - a few hundred bucks to figure out the best sound card solution.
Damn I wish it was simple. And the MX300 did the job period. But there
alwasy seems to be holes - some to big to warrant putting my gaming dollars
on the table...............
Advice appreciated...................
PS - Again what do you think of the MIDI quality?????????????
/NEPTUNE
Fred Mah
>
> Well, its actually something that I had suggested as well as a cool add-on.
> The main obstacle is where do you go to get "fitted" for a custom HRTF? It's
> not quite like getting a passport photo. :)
>
Well, sort of interesting mail I got just a couple days ago, fund raiser
from school, but interestingly the only picture in the pamphlet was two
students looking at computers and a dummy head in the background
(apparently with mics) that was supposedly sending acoustic recordings
to the computers. The picture was from a psychoacoustics lab.
JC
>It still sit here wondering if the Live would not be a better choice for
>MIDI and 3D gaming in a software update to EAX2.0? I can get a LIVE at
>Buycomp for $143 and would get the digital stuff to boot. So can the Live
>be software update to EAX2.0?
Yes, most certainly! The SB Live! sports a software upgradeable DSP chip.
Through Creative Lab's LiveWare program, there's already been 3 updates if
I'm not mistaken. The update to EAX 2.0 is slated to arrive in early '99,
maybe even January or something.
I have a SB Live! Value and was also considering exchanging it for a MX300,
but I'm glad I was able to resist the hype and not go through with it. If
companies other than Diamond come out with a really good Vortex2-based chip
I may reconsider, but for now, the Live! is good stuff.
JC
Gregg @ Diamond
Wow. A long review. :) I noted the one part that would like to comment on
below. You do have the option to not install the audio utilities during the
install of the MX300. On the setup screen, simply uncheck the audio
utilities. You will still get all of the A3d utilities, the EQ, the demos,
the control applet, etc. Unchecking this will prevent the Media Works from
installing and re-associating your files.
If you have already installed this, just re-run the setup utility and
uncheck it. It will update it and remove the associations and return them
back to their original settings. Or you can uninstall the Monster Sound,
and reinstall it without checking the Audio Utilities option.
I hope this helps, because it can be no fun manually editing file
associations.